BOYS’ SOCCER: EHS rallies to win regional championship

Edwardsville’s Josh Reed, back, and Bryce Broshow celebrate after Reed scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute in the Class 3A O’Fallon Regional championship game Friday in O’Fallon.

Edwardsville’s Josh Reed, back, and Bryce Broshow celebrate after Reed scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute in the Class 3A O’Fallon Regional championship game Friday in O’Fallon.

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Matt Kamp/Intelligencer

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Matt Kamp/Intelligencer

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Edwardsville’s Josh Reed, back, and Bryce Broshow celebrate after Reed scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute in the Class 3A O’Fallon Regional championship game Friday in O’Fallon.

Edwardsville’s Josh Reed, back, and Bryce Broshow celebrate after Reed scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute in the Class 3A O’Fallon Regional championship game Friday in O’Fallon.

Photo:

Matt Kamp/Intelligencer

BOYS’ SOCCER: EHS rallies to win regional championship

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O’FALLON – Backs against the wall with their season on the line, the Edwardsville Tigers pushed back.

And they did so in a big way.

AJ Sullivan scored the game-tying goal on a penalty kick in the 58th minute and Josh Reed added the game-winner 13 minutes later to help send the top-seeded Tigers to a 3-1 victory over host and third-seeded O’Fallon in the Class 3A O’Fallon Regional championship game.

“This is big and it feels really good. We’ve been working toward this all year,” said Reed, who scored his second goal of the season on a header off a corner kick in the 71st minute.

It is the 14th regional championship and second straight for the Tigers (11-2-3) under coach Mark Heiderscheid and Friday was the program’s 18th consecutive regional final appearance.

Edwardsville will play the winner of the Collinsville Regional at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Collinsville Sectional semifinals. The second-seeded Collinsville Kahoks (15-5-2) and third-seeded Quincy Blue Devils (14-7) meet at 3 p.m. Saturday to determine the regional winner.

O’Fallon ends it season at 11-9-2 after its second loss to Edwardsville. The Tigers won 3-1 on Sept. 20 in O’Fallon.

“We held our own tonight,” O’Fallon coach Jason Turkington said. “I think the first half of both games were about the same. It was different in the second half, because I thought we had a better flow for the first 10 minutes. After the penalty kick, (Edwardsville’s) energy got even higher.”

The Panthers led 1-0 at halftime after a goal by Andre Robertson in the 21st minute. Ben Koenig assisted on the goal.

It was the first goal surrendered by the Tigers in 372 minutes with the Panthers the last to score back on Sept. 20.

“O’Fallon created a good goal. They came down on a counter, cross it and it is an excellent goal,” Heiderscheid said.

O’Fallon keeper Steven Merrill did his best to make the lead stand, stopping a number of shots in first half. In the second half, he punched a free kick from Sullivan over the crossbar in the 52nd minute. Two minutes later, Merrill knocked down a shot by Ethan Miracle off a corner kick.

The Tigers finally solved Merrill in the 58th minute on a penalty-kick goal by Sullivan to tie it 1-1. Sullivan went low with his shot to the right side.

“Sullivan is a guy that is extremely calm and cool. He can go any direction with his shot and can make it,” Heiderscheid said.

Bryce Broshow was tripped inside the 18-yard box to draw the penalty kick for Edwardsville.

Sullivan’s goal was a sigh of relief for the Tigers, who scored on their 11th shot of the game.

“That calmed our nerves and we knew we could win it,” Reed said.

EHS continued to pressure and the work rate paid off in the 71st minute with Reed’s goal.

Sullivan served a corner kick into the middle of the box that Bryce Glisson headed to the goal. Perched in front of Merrill, Reed flicked a header into the top of the goal for the 2-1 lead.

“I was standing in front of the goalie and I was able to deflect it up. The goalie was standing right behind me. That was huge,” Reed said.

It was the second goal of the season for Reed, who scored his other against Alton on Senior Night.

The Tigers put the game away in the 74th minute when Jakob Doyle scored his second postseason goal on an assist from Glisson to push the lead to 3-1.

“That eased the pressure a lot. It was huge,” Reed said.

O’Fallon was unable to recover.

The Tigers had a 17-6 advantage in shots and took five of the game’s seven corner kicks.

The Panthers lost leading scorer Jordan Ellis (14 goals, four assists) to an injury in the first half, and also Chris Moore in the second half.

“When Jordan got hurt in the first half, you lose your leading scorer and it’s tough. We tried to throw him back out there in the second half but he wasn’t mobile,” Turkington said.

The Panthers last beat Edwardsville on Sept. 30, 2012. They’ve gone 0-9-1, including postseason, against EHS since the win.